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Modeling and Simulation

Researchers frequently require a quantitative understanding of the likely consequences of different actions before they can advise decisionmakers and design effective policies. RAND develops and uses statistical, econometric, and other exploratory models and simulations to analyze the potential outcomes of different policies in a range of areas such as transportation usage, health care, patient safety, and military campaigns.

Blog

Online Shopping, Living in a Riskier World, Stress in Communities: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Americans' online shopping habits during the pandemic, living in a riskier world, how stress builds in communities, and more.

Jul 10, 2020
Report

Which COVID-19 Models Are Useful to Policymakers?

Forecasting models are widely used to inform policymakers about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of policy responses to it. As models are being developed and improved continually, a new RAND framework can assess which ones are suitable for the state of Virginia.

Jul 8, 2020
Journal Article

The State of the Science in Opioid Policy Research

The rigor of study design varies notably across policy categories, highlighting the need for broader adoption of rigorous methods in opioid policy research.

Jul 7, 2020
Report

Report

Joint All-Domain Command and Control for Modern Warfare: An Analytic Framework for Identifying and Developing Artificial Intelligence Applications

The authors examine and recommend opportunities for applying artificial intelligence and, more broadly, automation to deliberate planning for joint all-domain command and control for the U.S. Air Force.

Jul 1, 2020
Report

Opportunities for Including the Information Environment in U.S. Marine Corps Wargames

Wargaming is enjoying renewed prominence in the defense community, yet the information environment remains underdeveloped and underrepresented in wargames.

Jul 1, 2020
Tool

Toolkit for Weighting and Analysis of Nonequivalent Groups: A Tutorial on the TWANG Shiny App for Two Treatments

This tutorial describes how to use a menu-driven Shiny app based on the Toolkit for Weighting and Analysis of Nonequivalent Groups (TWANG) R package. It can be used to estimate propensity score weights and treatment effects for binary treatments.

Jun 30, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Switching Cluster Membership in Cluster Randomized Control Trials: Implications for Design and Analysis

With a focus on cluster switching that violates treatment assignment, the goal of this article is to explore the challenges posed for the analysis of clustered RCTs and to propose a potential solution to these challenges.

Jun 16, 2020
Commentary

How Can Wargaming Improve Government Response to Catastrophic Events?

Wargames are abstracted models of national security challenges, where players' decisions and their consequences are adjudicated within a rules-based environment. Due to its inherent flexibility as a tool, wargaming can be applied to a wide range of issues. Yet, it is important to understand what wargaming can and cannot do.

May 29, 2020
Q&A

Modeling the Future of COVID-19: Q&A with RAND Experts

The phrase “flatten the curve” familiarized Americans with epidemiological models used to estimate virus transmission, cases, and potential deaths from COVID-19. But new models are needed as the country enters a different stage of the crisis.

May 26, 2020
Periodical

Periodical

RAND Review: May-June 2020

Feature stories explore how military and local governments can work together to prepare their communities for climate change, and the unmet needs of civilians who return from war zones and other hot spots throughout the world.

May 22, 2020
Multimedia

Epidemiological Models and COVID-19

In this Call with the Experts podcast, RAND researchers say new epidemiological models are needed as the country enters a different stage of the COVID-19 crisis, one in which changed behaviors must be taken into account.

May 21, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Meeting Climate, Mobility, and Equity Goals in Transportation Planning Under Wide-Ranging Scenarios: A Demonstration of Robust Decision Making

Robust Decision Making offers a promising complement and possibly future alternative to current prediction-based and scenario approaches that could help planners better manage in today's conditions of fast-paced change.

May 21, 2020
Report

Report

Building a Broader Evidence Base for Defense Acquisition Policymaking

This report summarizes the case for a broader evidence base for defense acquisition policymaking. It also describes a prototype policy game focused on Middle-Tier Acquisition that researchers developed to enrich the available evidence base.

May 19, 2020
Q&A

The Serious Side of Gaming: Q&A with Yuna Wong

Yuna Wong, codirector of RAND's Center for Gaming, didn't expect to make gaming a focus of her career. In this interview, she discusses what drew her to the field, what makes a good wargame, and her latest research on the dangers of putting too much trust in artificial intelligence.

May 8, 2020
Report

Report

Modeling the Impact of Border-Enforcement Measures

This report offers insights into effects of surveillance technology on border outcomes. The underlying research demonstrated the promise and limits of quasi-experimental statistical methods for evaluating the impact of border-enforcement measures.

May 7, 2020
Commentary

Don't Make the Pandemic Worse with Poor Data Analysis

The need for immediate answers in the face of severe public health and economic distress may create a temptation to relax statistical standards. But urgency should not preclude expert analysis and honest assessments of uncertainty. Mistaken assumptions could lead to counterproductive actions.

May 6, 2020
Multimedia

State-of-the-Art Strategies for Addressing Selection Bias When Comparing Two or More Treatment Groups

This course introduces causal modeling using the potential outcomes framework and propensity score weights to estimate causal effects from observational data.

May 1, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Drivers of Continued Implementation of Cultural Competence in Substance Use Disorder Treatment

This study examines whether the key characteristics of organizational decision makers predicted continued implementation of five different practices that represent organizational cultural competence in one of the most diverse substance use disorder treatment systems in the United States.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Broken Windows, Broken Zzs: Poor Housing and Neighborhood Conditions Are Associated with Objective Measures of Sleep Health

Sleep is a critical contributor to health and well-being. Sleep disturbances may contribute to racial and socioeconomic disparities in health. Understanding socio-environmental determinants of sleep health disparities is a public health imperative.

Apr 29, 2020
Commentary

The Great Reset: Policing in 2030

Scenarios of possible futures can help planners envision what the future could be, and plan ways to optimize opportunities or mitigate damage. Trends regarding retail operations, hotels, tax revenues, fines and forfeitures, and autonomous vehicles are all happening today. We've imagined how they might extend into the future.

Apr 20, 2020

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RAND Topic:
Modeling and Simulation

Topic Synonyms:
Mathematical Modeling;
Modelling

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